National Library Week

This week is National Library Week, and today, April 16, is National Library Workers Day.

In a 2005 address to the American Library Association conference, President Obama noted that

“More than a building that houses books and data, the library has always been a window to a larger world–a place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward. . .” *

Did you know there are over 121,000 libraries in the United States? The vast majority of libraries in the United States are school libraries, but even excluding those the 21,189 public, academic and special libraries outnumber the 14,157 McDonalds and the 10,787 Starbucks!

That bodes well for moving the story forward!

As we celebrate National Library Week, please take a moment to appreciate all that library employees do to make our students, staff, and faculty successful, help them discover big ideas and profound concepts, and remember that this library is far more than just its buildings – it is the people that work here that make it a success.

* Barack Obama, “Address to the American Library Association, June 27, 2005,” An American story : the speeches of Barack Obama : a primer, ed. David Olive (Toronto: ECW Press, 2008), 129-131.

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